Flexible panel protective spacers



S. J. FRAENKEL FLEXIBLE PANEL PROTECTIVE SPACERS Oct. 23, 1962 2 sheets-sheet 1 Filed April 19, 1961 WN. QW QW, Sv

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Oct. 23, 1962 s. J. FRAENKEI.

FLEXIBLE PANEL PROTECTIVE SPACERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 19, 1961 INVENToR. @30kg/Z JafZ/e BY M57? United ,States Patent O FLEXIBLE PANEL PROTECTIVE SPACERS Stephen J. Fraenkel, Wilmette, Ill., assigner to Stanray Corporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 19, 1961, Ser. No. 104,043

8 Claims. (Cl. 20-22) This invention relates to an improvement in structural materials composed of composition board made from brous material coated with a bonding agent and compressed into sheets of uniform thickness, density and internal structure.

Generally the invention relates to a flexible panel made of this material for use as a guard or barrier across a doorway or other passage to a container to restrain material within the container.

Specifically, the invention relates to a flexible grain door for grain cars for retaining grain within the car and out of contact with the slidable car door so as not to interfere with the operation thereof.

In grain cars it is the custom to nail grain doors to the inside surface of the door posts, said doors extending across the doorway to restrain the grain from contact with the outer or longitudinally slidable car door. These grain doors are of varying types from tongued and grooved boards, plywood, ber, reinforced paper, flakeboard, etc., and are ilexible so that pressure of grain against the grain door tends to flex said grain door so that it bowsoutwardly and if the forces are great enough, the grain door contacts lthe inside surfaceof the car door making the same diflicult if not impossible to open in the ordinary'way. The door then has to be opened by prying the same along its tracks and thus sometimes damaging the door. If llakeboard is used as the grain door, ditliculties may arise because of its brittleness rela- 4tive4 to wooden boards. Thus, there is the possibility that the flakeboard would crack and permit the grain to escape before it has flexed far enough to receive support from the regular car door.

Applicant therefore proposes to make a flexible composition`panel,usable-as a grain door, which panel is providedlon one side with integrally formedor subsequently attached small, spacing, projections of variable cross-section so that when installed the projections extend toward the outer longitudinally slidable car door. When the pressure on the grain door is sufcient to liex the grain door materially, the apices of the projections contact the inner surface of the outer car door, and, acting as short columns, the projections are very strong in compression. The two spaced doors therefore conjointly restrain the load. This is the principal object of the invention.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the following description thereof.

Referring now to the accompanying drawing forming part of this application and wherein like reference characters indicate like parts:

FIGURE l is a plan view of a composite corrugated grain door showing my improvement thereon.

FIGURE 2 is a horizontal section of FIGURE l, through the doorway immediately above the grain door.

FIGURE 3 is a vertical sectoin on line 3 3 of FIG- URE 1.

FIGURE 4 is a section on the line 4 4 of FIGURE l.

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional View through a portion of the intermediate section of the grain door.

The underframe of the car forms no part of the invention and thus is not shown, although the floor of the car is indicated at 10. The side walls of the car of course are of standard construction and include a doorway cen- 4 3,059,288 Patented Oct. 23, 1962 ICC trally at each side. The door opening is defined by vertical side door posts 12 which are of metal and usually a 4 x 3 x 1A angle or modified channel, one flange being about one-third the Width of the other. The shorter flange is toward the inside of the car. Wood nailing blocks 16 are installed within the ilanges of the door posts and these extend Within the posts from the side plate of the car to the floor. A wearing strip or corner molding 13 is applied to the nailing block to take the abuse of frequent nailing of grain doors, and the like, thereto. When cracked or splintered, these moldings are easily and quickly replaceable. The outside sheathing 20 overlaps the Wide flange of the door post, and the inside lining 22 overlaps the nailing blocks 16 and abuts edgewise against the corner molding 18.

On the outside of this door opening is a longitudinally slidable door for moving parallel with the car wall to fully close or fully open the door opening.

As before stated, when cars are used in grain service, some means must be provided to keep the grain from contact with the longitudinally slidable doors because otherwise the pressure of grain against the door when the Y car is loaded with grain would make it impossible to move the door transversely.

Therefore there is provided a grain door shown at 30 and in this instance I propose to use a grain door constructed of what is known as akeboard. Briefly, these boards are composed of thin small rectangular wafers of wood which are coated with resin and randomly arranged on a press bed and then by pressure and curing formed into a corrugated board as shown in the drawings. With large enough equipment, these could be formed in one piece, but for more practical reasons I propose to form the grain door of three sections 32, 34, and 36, the lower edges of the intermediatel and upper 36 sections being olfset to overlap the upper edge of the next lower section. In the pressing operation, corrugations 33 are formed iu the sheet, being pressed therein to one side of the original plane of the sheet. Said corrugations are narrow and shallow at their ends, feathering out into the plane of the sheet adjacent the vertical or side margins thereof. These sheets are nailed to and extend between the door posts, as indicated in FIGS. l and 2. A narrow sheet of paper indicated at 39 is applied over the side margin of the gain door to prevent leakage of grain in this area. The corrugatoins increase in width and depth to the middle thereof -for better distribution of strength.

When applied to the door posts, the corrugations are toward the interoir of the car and offer great resistance in compression. Since the weight and pressure of grain thereagainst cause the grain door to deflect, I have installed a series of small projections indicated at 40 which project from the opposite side of the sheet to that of the corrugations. These projections 40 are uniformly spaced over the surface of the grain door, and may be integrally formed with the grain door or subsequently attached thereto. They are approximately 2" in height having a small head portion, a base of approximately 1" diameter, and of narrower cross section therebetween to provide a unit which is strong in compression but weak in shear.

Thus when the grain presses against the grain door, delecting same outwardly, the tips of the projections 40 will contact the car door, which will thus conjointly act with the grain door in resisting the pressure of the grain. These projections are tapered and of suicient diameter to provide adequate column action, and to prevent being forced through the grain door. However, as before stated, they are shaped so as to be weak in shear, and in case of transverse load would break olf easily. Thus if due to pressure of grain, the grain door deflected until the projections contacted the car door, little resistance would be offered by the projections when it became necessary to open the car door. If much resistance were encountered, the projections would simply break off when sufficient force is applied to open the door.

The projections may be formed integrally with the grain door or may be supplied separately and applied to the door with glue. The shape of the projections is such that it will fail in the body of the projections rather than at the glue line.

Such projections applied as above described would permit the use of more brittle materials for an enclosure, and would permit greater economy in construction because a thinner grain door could be used with equal safety in retaining the load.

It may be desirable that the projections be of varying height, that is, those adjacent the door posts being the longest and those toward the middle of the grain door being progressively shorter so that even though on a bowed surface when the grain door is deflected outwardly, all projections would engage the car door approximately simultaneously.

While the invention has been described as being applicable to a exible grain door, it is obvious that the principle of the invention could be used wherever a flexible door is used adjacent a movable surface.

I claim:

l. An integral molded akeboard exible grain door comprising a load supporting body member extending substantially in a single plane, a plurality of spaced cylindrical projections integral with said body member and extending from one side thereof and forming spacing means for engaging an adjacent movable surface upon exure of said body member thereagainst, the apices of said projections being of relatively small area so that said apices in the aggregate would offer minimal resistance to lateral movement of said surface, said projections being of minimum diameter adjacent said apices so as to be weak in shear.

2. The structure of claim l, fwherein said projections are of minimum cross section intermediate their length.

3. The structure of claim 1, wherein said projections are of varying height.

4. A exible grain door comprising a load supporting body member extending substantially in a single plane, a plurality of uniformly spaced tapered projections extending substantially normal to said body member from one side thereof for forming spacing means for engaging a laterally movable adjacent surface upon llexure of said member, the apices of said projections being of small area so as to olfer minimal resistance to lateral movement of said surface if necessary, said projections having a small neck adjacent said apices and being fweak in shear so that they may be easily broken off.

5. The combination with a flexible panel secured at opposite edges to span an opening, and a slidable closure spaced from said panel and movable to open or closed position with respect to said opening, of small spaced tapered projections extending from one surface of said panel toward said closure for contacting said closure upon exing of said panel whereby the closure and panel conjointly resist the forces causing flexing of the panel, said projections each having a small head portion and narrow neck so as to be weak in shear.

6. The combination set forth in claim 5, said projections being longer adjacent opposite sides of said panel and progressively shorter toward the middle thereof, so that upon exure of said panel all of said projections will contact said closure and distribute forces equally thereagainst.

7. The combination with a railway car having a side wall, a door opening in said wall defined by door posts, and a longitudinally slidable door movable parallel with the outside of said side wall to close or open said door opening, of a flexible grain door secured along its vertical margins to the inside of said door posts, a plurality of small spacer projections extending from the outside of the grain door toward said slidable door for engagement therewith upon exure of said grain door, said projections each being of narrow cross section intermediate its ends to provide a unit strong in compression and weak in shear.

8. The combination set forth in claim 7, said grain door having integrally formed therein spaced corrugations extending horizontally thereacross and said projections being positioned in spaced relation along the axis of a corrugation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

